Chapter 125 Raid (End)
Samiel looked around when he killed the commander of the fortress, and he saw that most of the resistance coming from the side of the Human Brotherhood's troops had already been quelled, so that only a few were left to fight.
The Undeads were especially effective in sniffing out anything that lived and killing it, and this time it was no different from the typical routine. After the yards and the outer parts of the fortress were cleaned out, the Undeads started pouring inside the fortress itself, meaning the buildings and searching for the survivors.
Of course, there was a whole bunch of people that, instead of fighting against the enemy, decided to hide and hope for the best... just this time, it didn't really work. Outside of the fortress, in the forest around the fortress, the fights were also quieting down as the remaining resistance was slowly being killed out.
After that, Samiel entered the inner parts of the fortress after he had examined the main building of the fortress. He felt that it was now time to seek out some documents and information that had been left there by the Human Brotherhood. This was one of the priorities why he chose this mission in the first place, as he knew that there would be for sure some compromising material that could be used against the Human Brotherhood.
From the Dimensional Ring of the fortress's commander, Samiel already got some samples of the synergy and some other things, which he recognized as genetic concoctions. Interestingly, the commander had around ten samples and three different kinds in his Dimensional Ring.
The insides of the fortress were indeed pretty poorly done, without much decoration or anything; it was clear that this place was finished only a short time ago. Of course, as Samiel was strolling through the fortress, he saw several armories and places where they stored other critical resources.
Of course, when it came to resources like Potions, Samiel took them all; actually he was taking everything he could see because everything here could be sold at a certain price when he returned back to the Goldtooth. Money was money no matter of what resources it came from, and the loot was always one of the best resources when it came to making money.
After he "robbed" several armories and other places where the critical resources were stored, Samiel continued to the top of the tower, where he got information from his Undeads; that they found some strategic room filled with plans and maps.
When he arrived at the top of one of the towers in the fortress, Samiel looked around with his scrutinizing gaze; he immediately recognized the place as some sort of strategic room and started going through the maps and plans that were all around the room.
Meanwhile, he sent his Undeads to search through the dungeons and underground spaces below the fortress to see if there was something useful or interesting. Every fortress should have something like that, and Samiel predicted that exactly where some of the most essential resources would be hidden.
For ten minutes, he had been going through the documents that were in the strategic room, and soon after, he found what he had searched for. Aside from this fortress, he found the locations of another four similar forward fortresses of the Human Brotherhood that they managed to build in remote parts of the Demon Continent.
Of course, these were probably not all, but considering the poor planning skills of the leadership of the Human Brotherhood, they made be. Normally, they wouldn't leave such crucial information in one place, meaning that if one fortress was conquered, then the safety and existence of all others would be instantly compromised.
"Have you found something useful, aside from the garbage that is all around?"
Samiel heard Yvraine's voice as she returned from the forests, meaning the fight in there had ended, and the resistance had been put down. With this, the entire raid has ended, and when the Undeads have searched through the underground of the fortress, then we can conclude this entire thing.
"Yes, from the documents these morons have left here unsecured, we can conclude that there are at least another four fortresses that the Human Brotherhood has managed to build around the most remote parts of the Demon Continent. Aside from that... I got the list of people who are collaborating with them on the 8th Floor, and there are some big names."
Samiel then said as he presented Yvraine with the list of around twenty-five people who were collaborating with the Human Brotherhood. Usually, they were some trich merchants that were procuring information and some resources for them at outrageous prices, but there were also some high-ranked Demons of high social status that seemed to be plotting something.
One of them was even one of the children of the current Patriarch of the Black-Winged Demon Tribe. For the Demon Tribes, this situation was no different than just playing around, and they were using it as a training ground for their younger generation.
Considering that the Human Brotherhood didn't even have any Legendaries, it was pretty understandable. Demon Tribes were individually pretty powerful, as each one had a whole bunch of Legendaries, the stronger Tribes even had Holy Legendary, but those could be counted on one hand.
If they were actually allied together, then they would, for sure, probably be collectively stronger than even the Hall of Kadath, but the such outcome was night impossible. The Demon Tribes were descended from the Trasncedental Daemons, and they constantly waged war against each other, meaning their descendants would do the same thing.
"So he is secretly supplying them with information so he can take out his competitors..."
Yvraine muttered as this was indeed crucial information; who would have thought that someone from the Demon Tribal Council would be colluding with the Human Brotherhood, considering how much the Demon despite the Human Race as a whole.
Among the Demon Tribes, the inner competition within the tribes was extremely brutal, and practically nothing was forbidden, but if this was known to the Patriarch, then Prince Bariux would lose his head for sure.
Collaborating with humans in any way was a very big no-no for demons, especially because they viewed humans as their food, not as something whom they should collaborate with. Especially against their own species, the punishment would typically be way worse than death.
"Indeed, and it seems he leaked some good amount of confidential information to the enemies... who knows what else they know."
Samiel said while he was storing everything in the strategic room in his Dimensional Ring because all of this would be submitted to The Guild, along with the proof of the destruction of the fortress. Subsequently, The Guild will take of the aftermath and contact all relevant parties, especially the Golden-Horned Tribe how to deal with the situation.
And also the Black-Winged Tribe because the traitor with the highest social status was one of its Princes, meaning the information that the Human Brotherhood may have in their hands be something of utmost secret and importance.
"Is there anything of importance aside from these documents?"
Yvraine questioned, to which he shook his head in denial, as there was nothing because he took everything. Even his Undeads were collecting anything that could be sold on the market, as it never hurt to have more money.
"Maybe in the dungeons; I ordered my Undeads to search it through and obviously, they already found something of interest. I think that the humans were storing some of those weird genetic cocktails hidden somewhere there."
Samiel stated as they descended down onto the dungeons, where his Undeads found a sealed room, protected with at least Silver-Tier Magic Seal, which was something they couldn't get through themselves.
Seeing this only strengthened Samiel's thoughts that they were storing something precious here, possibly those synergies and genetic concoctions. Samiel went to the sealed doors as he scrutinized the magic seal that was sealing the doors before he put his right hand on the middle of the magic seal.
As he put his hand there, he channeled from his hand a weakened and controlled 3rd Level Spell Void Strike as he blasted apart both the stone doors and the magic seal which was protecting them. The magical defenses of the doors and whatever it was protecting were subpar, if they could be blasted apart by single 3rd Level Spell.
When the dust settled down, he entered the room with Yvraine; they saw hundreds of liquids stored in metal-glass containers in a similar design that the commander of the fortress used on himself. They were orderly stacked up in their containers, which in turn were put on countless shelved that were in the room.
Both of them could see that these serums were separated based on the Tier of the user, rating from the Iron-Tier up to the Silver-Tier, though those for the Silver-Tier individuals were only a few of them.
"Take half of them; I will take the second half."
Samiel stated as they started emptying the room from the serum, storing them in their Dimensional Rings so that they could pass them to their factions for study. If Samiel was right, then these ones came straight out of laboratories of the Germinal Order, because there were only so few factions with capabilities like this.
He came to that conclusion just based on the sheer quantity of the serums, as there were thousands of them, even though the majority of them were meant for the Iron-Tier and Steel-Tier individuals, with a few hundred being for the Bronze-Tiers. Not to mention that the Germinal Order had even a partial motive by supplying these things to the Human Brotherhood.
After they emptied everything, Samiel started recalling back his Undeads, when the last person of the Human Brotherhood was killed deep in the dungeons, and nothing of significant value was found.
Clearly, these underground premises were used solely for genetic concoctions and nothing else. Indeed if they planned to carry out an attack on the Demon Continent, then it would be prudent for their troops to be injected with the serum only a very short time before the attack, as their lifespan would be shortened to mere months.
"We are finished here."
After everything was done, they exited the inner parts of the fortress altogether and regrouped with Ashimer in front of the fortress or what remained of it. Aside from that, Samiel ordered his Undeads to collect corpses of the Bronze-Tier and Silver-Tier individuals as those would make suitable material for his Undeads.
Then he turned around and started conjuring a new spell that he had learned to destroy this place entirely so that it couldn't be used by the Human Brotherhood once more. It was the 5th Level Spell from the Void Magic called the Void Bomb and it was as destructive as one would expect from the 5th Level Spell of the Void Magic.
Basically, a boosted version of the Void Strike, when the caster conjures the Void itself in a small ball and drops it on the desired target. It was far more destructive than the average Void Strike, and its destructive capabilities would be ranked top-notch among the 5th Level Spells.
Even an ordinary 5th Level Spell could obliterate an entire village, and this Spell was even more potent. Yvraine observed how Samiel carefully handled the Void into a small ball, which he threw directly in the middle of the fortress, like throwing a ball.
Immediately upon contact with the ground, the Void Ball exploded, creating a tremendous explosion that engulfed an entire diameter of hundreds of meters and a shockwave so strong that it ripped out the surrounding trees with their roots from the ground and sent them flying.
It was a spectacular explosion.
"That was really something."
Samiel stated, satisfied with his work, as he looked like the once tall fortress had been turned into ruins and a pile of dust and stones, with nothing remaining in place. Even though the Human Brotherhood used some special materials in its construction so it could withstand clashes of full power from the Silver-Tier Professionals, it was nothing in front of the Void.
Even now, he could still observe how the remains of the Void were greedily corrupting everything they could, spreading through the area like a virus through the body, leaving nothing intact, turning everything to its cold and destructive image.
Such was the true nature of the Void.
Cold, corrupting and extremely destructive, that wasn't itself.
That was the reason why the Void was considered as one of the Taboos to pursue and study because it would very easily bring death to the person who was too arrogant.
But Samiel knew that these bits would soon enough disperse because they were not powerful enough to survive on its own, even though the surrounding environment would be inhabitable for upcoming centuries due to the aftereffects of the Void's corruption.
Of course, many places like this existed across the Cosmos and greater catastrophes have been unleashed by experimenting with the Void Magic that has gone wrong, sometimes annihilating even entire Worlds in a matter of seconds.